The Spanish health ministry registered 743 deaths in the last 24 hours, more than the 637 reported between Sunday and Monday, which brings the total number of fatalities to 13 798 since the outbreak began.

There were a further 5 478 new infections detected in the same period, bringing the running total to 140 510, the second-highest number in the world behind the United States.

Although around 83 000 infected people remain active, more than 40 000 - a third of all confirmed cases - have recovered.

“It’s normal for this to happen, for there to be oscillations after the weekend”, - Maria Jose Sierra, from Spain’s public health emergency department, said.

“What is important is to see the trend and the accumulation over several days. The small uptick we normally see on Tuesdays doesn’t have a huge deal of importance. We need to keep monitoring it and see what happens this week. We continue to see a downward trend”, - she added.